Ford's Taurus out of gas

Automaker turns its back on family car that saved its bottom line in '80s

Tom Krisher, The Associated Press

Updated 10:00 pm, Thursday, October 19, 2006

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Sometime next week, the assembly line at a Ford plant near Atlanta will come to a halt, signaling the end of a family sedan so revolutionary that its 1985 debut changed forever the way cars look, feel and drive.

Say goodbye to the Taurus.

After 21 years and sales of nearly 7 million cars, the Ford Motor Co. is giving up on what some call the most influential automobile since Henry Ford's Model T. The Taurus is credited with moving America away from boxy V-8 powered gas-guzzling bedrooms-on-wheels to aerodynamic, more fuel-efficient cars with crisper handling.

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To many, the Taurus' death was slow and painful as Ford in recent years abandoned the car that saved the company, focusing instead on high-profit trucks and sport utility vehicles.

"When that thing came out, it was a big deal," said Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. "It so much became kind of the template of what a modern car was going to look like."

The Taurus made its debut late in 1985, with 1979 gasoline shortages still fresh in consumers' minds. The U.S. economy was just pulling out of a downturn when the scalloped Taurus, initially equipped with V-6 and four-cylinder engines, hit showrooms. It was an immediate hit, with buyers snapping up more than 263,000 in 1986, its first full year on the market.

It became the best-selling car in America in 1992 with sales of nearly 410,000, unseating the Honda Accord just as Japanese imports were starting to take hold in the U.S. It held the top spot for five straight years until it was supplanted by the Toyota Camry in 1997. Even near death in September, it remained Ford's top-selling car.

Ford also sold 2 million Mercury Sables, the Taurus' nearly identical twin.

Ford was losing billions in the early 1980s when Taurus was just an idea. Philip Caldwell, chief executive at the time, challenged designers and engineers to come up with a radically different car to return Ford to profitability.

"We were in terrible condition financially," said Jack Telnack, chief designer on the original Taurus who retired in 1998. "He said 'Look, we need something really different, really new, that will kind of set the pace out there.' "

Nearly 1,000 people worked on the car, many coming from Ford's European operations. Engineers put in a stiffer suspension and they gave the car more interior room, firmer seats, better ergonomics and more trunk space, he said.

The car also had a lot of new "surprise and delight" features including a cargo net to hold grocery bags in the trunk and rear-seat headrests and heat ducts, said Joel Pitcoff, the Taurus' marketing manager at the time.

It was a hit in market research, and sales beat expectations, said Sam Pack, owner of three Dallas-area Ford dealerships who took part in Taurus research.

The car's sales remained strong until it got a makeover in 1996. Although the second version sold well, it never matched the original's numbers.

In the late 1990s, the Taurus became symptomatic of Ford's current ills. The company focused on high-profit trucks and SUVs, leaving the car almost unchanged for 10 years with little ad support. In the meantime, competitors copied the Taurus and refined their models, and the Taurus became solely a rental car and fleet vehicle.

"It didn't keep pace. That's the whole story in four words," Pitcoff said.

Ford, left with few desirable cars, was caught flat-footed this year when consumer tastes shifted away from trucks. Sales have dropped 8.6 percent through September, and the company lost $1.4 billion in the first half of the year.

"They put no money into that product for the last several years," Telnack said of the Taurus. "They just let it wither on the vine. It's criminal. The car had a great reputation, a good name. I don't understand what they were waiting for."

When the lights go out on the last Taurus at the Hapeville, Ga., assembly plant next week, there won't be a ceremony.